We love the Lakers more than you love your favorite team

You’ve taken your last shot, world, and now, it’s time for me to fire back!

I’ve gotten it from all angles, I hear people talk about us, I read what people write about us, I watch what you say about us on TV – and when I read this blog about the Portland Trailblaizers bandwagon, it was the last fucking straw! I need the world to stop calling out Lakers fans like we haven’t been with out team through everything.

(NOTE: Are you really going to call out the fans of a certain franchise when you're writing about the bandwagon of your own? Really? Please, please someone tell me how this makes any kind of fucking sense. I don't get it, but I digress.)

So what if the overtly wealthy didn’t stand up and cheer during the damn Finals, so what if they don’t haze opposing players, so what if the Staples Center doesn’t have the same energy during games that places like Utah, Golden State or Boston have. Who really gives a fuck? Those people there aren’t the real Lakers fans. Can you blame us for missing the playoffs only twice in my life time, 21 years, can you blame us for Lakers GMs consistently going out and bringing in star players to Hollywood, can you blame us for living in one of the most materialistic cities in the world, can you blame us for ticket prices? Hell no!

What the world doesn’t understand is the fact that real Lakers fans are poor. We’re the inner city kids who live in two bedroom apartments with those bedroom having to be split between six people, we’re the guys who have high school diplomas and work at Wing Stop, we’re the ones who have college degrees and are still struggling to pay bills, we’re the ones who have to save over the summer just to get to a couple of games every season. We can’t be blamed Magic and Kareem brought us five titles in the 80s and Shaq and Kobe brought home the first three of the millennium. Don’t blame Jerry Buss for raising ticket prices to ranges outside of our income either, that’s what the fuck business men do. Los Angeles is a large city, and its premier team caters not only to the people in Los Angeles, but all of its surrounding cities. The Staples Center only seats a little under 19,000 people, so the laws of supply and demand tells us that, if people from San Diego to Bakersfield are trying to get tickets, prices are going to be high. We’ve been priced out, and there is nothing we can do about it. It’s big business, it’s a winning team, it’s Los Angeles. So don’t blame us, blame your own bum ass teams.

The Lakers have played in more Finals series than any other team in the NBA, and if it weren’t for the Celtics completely dominating the 60s, they would definitely have more NBA Titles than every other team. There are hardly ever rebuilding years, there have only been five seasons in Lakers history where they did not make the post season, they’ve failed to make the post season in consecutive seasons only once and you expect the real fans to be able to afford going to games – in Hollywood?!? Jerry Buss knows what he has, he has a team full of stars in a city full of stars – stars who have the money to pay for whatever he asks. Getting into the Staples Center during the Finals is akin to getting into an A-List party, you have to either A) have a lot of money, B) know someone with a lot of money, C) know someone important at the party or D) be famous. Of course, option D probably has options A through C covered. Sorry ladies, short skirts can’t get you into this one (well, actually they can, just not at the door). Can you blame us for not being there during the Finals series my generation has been praying for? No. We can’t be blamed for your teams lack of consistency. It’s not our fault the Clippers have been to the playoffs only seven times in their history, it’s not our fault that when teams are going through decade long post-season droughts we’re suffering from decade long title droughts. If other teams in the league were able to beat us more consistently, maybe we would have been at those playoff games. You could even argue that the fat cats at those playoff games would have been a little more excited to cheer if they weren’t at playoff games every season or weren’t at Finals series for half of the leagues history. We’re used to winning, we’re used to playoff games, we’re used to championships. Hell, UCLA has more NCAA basketball championships than any other school in the nation (God it hurt to type that sentence), USC has more college baseball titles than any other school in the nation and is third on the list in football championships. We win out here, it’s what these stars are used to.

Don’t question our loyalty either. Remember, we’re the fans who still sold out Staples Center even after Kobe told us that he didn’t want to play for us anymore, we’re the fans who were still in the top-10 in attendance when Rudy-T coached the Lakers minus Shaq, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox and Robert Horry, we’re the fans who waited patiently for Kobe and Shaq to emerge as the leagues most dangerous duo since Magic and Kareem, we’re the fans who are always there. You’ll never see an empty arena in Los Angeles during down years like you do in Boston. Hell, last season when Kobe went off in the Garden, they were chanting MVP. Granted there were a lot of Lakers fans in the arena that night, but you’d never see Boston fans filling out the Staples Center to chant MVP for Paul Pierce. Ever. As much as you hate to admit it, Lakers fans aren’t bandwagon fans. We’ve sustained greatness for too long to have bandwagon fans. You’re either a Lakers fan or you’re not, and you just can’t say that about other teams. After a Lakers championship, I don’t see more Lakers jerseys like I see Boston jerseys now or like I saw Spurs jerseys a year ago or Heat jerseys the year before that. We never flip flop, and we genuinely care if the Lakers win or lose. I’ve watched a lot of basketball with a lot of different people, and I’ve seen something thrown in anger five or six times in my life time (not counting my father who probably throws something six to seventeen times a year) and all of them have been Lakers fans, which is saying a lot when none of my close friends are Lakers fans. Because you’re not there, in Los Angeles, you don’t get to see the love we have for our team. Just go to any sports bar in South Central during a Lakers game and see what happens to guys who show up wearing the other teams colors, it’s not a good look – it’s akin to someone showing up to the Black Hole wearing a Chiefs jersey, or walking through blood territory draped in blue. It’s not a good thing, because that’s how much we care. We fight (we meaning drunk Lakers fans not including myself, but I will someday, I’m sure) for our team, both literally and figuratively.

So stop giving us the bad rap when it’s probably your team with the bum ass fans. I’m talking to you Memphis. I’m talking to you Miami. I’m talking to you Golden State. I’m talking to you Indiana. I’m talking to you Minnesota. I’m talking to you Boston. In fact, I’m talking to fans from every fucking team in the league except for Knicks fans – and maybe, maybe Bulls fans. We are the most loyal fans in the league, I’ve never met a Lakers fan who has even thought about switching teams and I’ve never met a Lakers fan who was embarrassed about expressing their allegiance to the Lakers. So fuck all of you who think we don’t love our team more than you love yours. We do. Probably even more.

Stay Hideous
-PB

(Word count to date: 29,905
73 days and 70,095 words to go)